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hellacious

hellacious

2 9.0
Very bad or difficult and hard to deal with
  • adjective
  • /həˈleɪʃəs/
  • Informal
: terrible
  • It is a really awful, hellacious mess of stuff.
  • a hellacious day

You got one year of hellacious grind ahead of you.

Examples

  • We've just come off a hellacious flight from the coast... and would really appreciate an upgrade, possibly to a junior executive suite.

  • You got one year of hellacious grind ahead of you.

  • I'm already in hellacious trouble with my dad.

  • We almost got away, too, except that we found ourselves closed up in this hellacious box canyon.

  • Monday was shaping up to be a hellacious day.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • First, you had a hellacious dispute over insurance coverage for the towers that went on for years.

    Blog text (9)
  • The meanest, crookedest, most hellacious town in the West.

  • What a hellacious ending.

  • Last night's storm had not materialized, passing over Willis without even bothering to say hello, but it had left behind some hellacious humidity.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • After a hellacious week of exams, all I wanted was a relaxing weekend.

Synonyms

horrible
vshellacious
∞ 1.5

Very bad or frightening in a way that makes you feel upset

is broader and often refers to extreme intensity or difficult situations
horrific
vshellacious
200 5.5

Causing great fear or shock

is broader and covers intense difficulty or overwhelming badness as well
brutal
vshellacious
134 4.2

Very harsh and severe, causing great difficulty or pain

is broader, covering intense badness and overwhelming negative intensity
dreadful
vshellacious
134 3.7

Very bad and unpleasant, often causing fear or shock

is broader and can stress intense difficulty or overwhelming severity
harsh
vshellacious
104 2.9

Very severe and demanding, making life or work difficult, for example very bad weather

is more intense and can mean overwhelming or extremely bad overall
unbearable
vshellacious
84 3.9

Too painful or unpleasant to stand

is broader and can mean intense badness without impossible tolerance
horrendous
vshellacious
79 7.0

Very shocking and scary, causing fear or disgust

is broader, and can stress intense difficulty rather than only shock
nasty
vshellacious
77 5.1

Very difficult to deal with or solve

is broader, also meaning intense unpleasantness beyond mere difficulty
grim
vshellacious
63 4.5

Very bad and shocking, causing people to feel fear or sadness

is broader and refers to extreme badness beyond only horror or dread
awful
vshellacious
  • Archaic
58 1.1

Very frightening and causing fear or dread

is broader and also covers intense difficulty or overwhelming unpleasantness
unspeakable
vshellacious
56 7.2

Too terrible to describe in words

is broader, can mean overwhelming badness or severe difficulty instead
wicked
vshellacious
40 3.1

A very bad or painful condition, for example during illness

is broader and also stresses intense difficulty or overwhelming negativity
god-awful
vshellacious
  • Informal
29 8.4

Very bad and unpleasant

is more neutral and can appear in both formal and informal speech
hellish
vshellacious
27 6.1

Very unpleasant and painful, like being in hell

is broader, covers extreme difficulty and overwhelming intensity
terrible
vshellacious
27 1.0

So frightening that people feel afraid

is broader and emphasizes extreme intensity, difficulty, or badness
wretched
vshellacious
12 5.7

Extremely unhappy and suffering a lot

is broader and focuses more on external difficulty and overwhelming intensity
infernal
vshellacious
  • Literature
6 8.3

Very evil and cruel, causing great pain or suffering

is broader, focuses also on intense difficulty and overwhelming severity
unendurable
vshellacious
4 8.0

Too unpleasant or painful to bear

is broader and can describe intense severity without total intolerability
frightful
vshellacious
2 4.2

Very bad or unpleasant in a strong way

is broader and often means intense difficulty or overwhelming harm
helly
vshellacious
  • Slang
1 9.9

An extremely unpleasant situation that is hard to handle

is neutral and fits formal as well as informal contexts

Antonyms

∞ 1.0

Not hard to do, understand, or achieve

323 1.0

Giving a gentle feeling of enjoyment

How Bad

hellacious
  • Informal
2 9.0
terrible
∞ 1.0
serious
∞ 2.0
bad
∞ 1.0
unpleasant
183 1.0

Surface Forms

hellacious positive
hellaciously positive

Morphology

hellacious = hell (semi-transparent) = hell + acious

The form appears to be built from 'hell' plus the adjectival suffix '-acious', so the negative force is suggestable, but the full sense is still colloquial and not fully predictable.

Etymology

The word hellacious comes from hell and the ending -acious, which gives the sense 'like' or 'full of', so it literally means 'like hell' and is used for something very bad, difficult, or intense.